Heritage is wide-ranging and projects should focus on whatever your young people are interested in. Here are some ideas and examples: 

♦ Complete a heritage walk around your community. Use Historic England’s map of the List to find listed buildings and places near you.  

♦ Become a heritage detective with the Street Spotter’s Guide!  

♦ Look at photos of your local area from the past. Use Historic England’s Aerial Photo Explorer. How has the area changed? What does this mean to you?  

♦ Taste some food from the heritage of the local community. Can you learn more about it or how to cook it?  

♦ Explore a local museum or heritage site - maybe you could plan a Takeover Day? 

♦ Listen to music from a local musician or of local cultural significance.  Invite the young people to respond and reflect on it. 

♦ Learn about someone significant who came from nearby/your unit. Explore local archives or newspapers, or hear from someone who knew them/their relatives. 

♦ Create something (drawing, story, poem, dance, etc.) which responds to a piece of heritage you have seen/discussed.  If it was Listed, add your response to the Missing Pieces project! 

♦ Design your heritage flag/shield, to show the parts of heritage which are special for you or your unit.  

♦ How do we, or could we, remember special people or things? Draw or make something to remember someone/something special e.g. paper plate Blue Plaques - and you could recommend someone for a real one!

♦ Create a small, ‘pop-up’ museum to share your heritage at your unit or an event with the public. 

Getting started with a heritage project: a step-by-step guide for leaders 

1. See if heritage exploration and social action activities fit within an existing badge for your organisation, e.g. Local Knowledge, Community Impact, Historian, Local History, Family Tree, etc.  

2. Research local heritage around your group’s meeting place:  

• Take a look at The List map. 

• Check out The Street Spotter’s Guide.  

3. Plan a short local heritage walk/trail based on what you’ve found above. 

4. Take a look at the Missing Pieces Project.  

• Task the young people with taking photos, drawing or writing about the listed places and local heritage that you see on the heritage walk. 

• Create a free account (for your group, if young people are under 13, or for individuals, if young people are 13+). Upload your perspectives of the listed places. This adds to the national archive and records of these treasured listed places. 

5. After the heritage walk, discuss with the young people what they found most interesting. 

6. Share some other examples of local heritage that might be inspiring for your young people, based on their interests and passions, e.g. music, arts, carnivals and celebrations, industry, stories from the local community e.g. veterans or notable figures from the area or commemorated nearby. 

7. Ask the young people what they want to discover more about.  

8. Based on the interests and ideas of the young people, see if there are any relevant heritage organisations or sites nearby, which might be able to enrich the experience for young people e.g. provide a tour of a heritage site, share their expertise or stories, provide basic resources or training.  
   Examples of organisations who might have a relevant offer: 

• Historic England 

• English Heritage 

• Historic Houses 

• Canal and River Trust 

• Kids In Museums 

• National Trust 

• War Memorials Trust 

• Heritage Network

• Council for British Archaeology - Young Archaeologists' Club 

• Local historical/archaeological societies 

9. Discuss with the young people whether other people might be interested in this and might benefit from learning about it? How could they share what they discover?  

10. If there is an issue that has become evident (e.g. fundraising needed, anti-social behaviour, damage to listed sites) is there something the group could do to help in some way? 

11. If the young people wish to share their learning and bring about positive change in the community, but some additional funding is required, take a look at our microgrants and get in touch with us. 

12. Plan some follow-on sessions, with visitors where relevant, to develop the heritage activities with the young people’s interests.  

• Encourage the young people to co-design sessions, plan a social action project to make positive change in the community, and how to share this. 

13. Deliver the sessions, share the results and take lots of photos and videos along the way! 

In the 2024-25 phase of the Heritage Youth Partnership, we funded 7 local heritage projects with microgrants. You can read 3 case studies below:

Forest Hill Brownies

Savile Town Scouts

Durham and Northumberland Wing Air Cadets

If you're interested to find out more, we'd love to hear from you. Complete the Expression of Interest form and we'll get back to you via email.

We have a limited number of £600 microgrants available for youth-led heritage projects, which will bring about positive change in your community and share the heritage work that your group has undertaken. Please get in touch if you are interested to find out more. You can find the application form below.

Click here to download the Microgrant Funding Application Form

Click here to download an Example Completed Application Form.

We ask all microgrant-funded projects complete evaluation surveys for young people and leaders at the beginning and end. We would also love to receive any evaluation from other heritage activity completed by uniformed youth groups.

Click to download the Evaluation Information for Leaders

Click to complete the online Evaluation Survey for Young People

Click to complete the Accessible Easy-read Evaluation Survey for Young People

Click to complete the Evaluation Survey for Leaders